Streams

Arnold's Press

One year ago this week, the seemingly impossible became inevitable: the Terminator became the Governator. The entertainment media have hit the jackpot with this story, but the traditional statehouse press is having a hard time accessing the new chief. Brooke talks about Schwarzenegger's press strategy with Peter Nicholas, statehouse correspondent for the L.A. Times.

Transcript

BROOKE GLADSTONE: One year ago this week, what seemed impossible became - well - practically inevitable. [START TAPE] [CROWD CHEERING]

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, we don't know. It is up to the God now. [END TAPE]

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Old school journalists like Ted Koppel may have watched in disbelief as the Terminator was transformed into the Governator, but the entertainment media could have predicted it, if they were in the business of political prognostication. And the entertainment media have been reaping the benefits of Arnold Schwarenegger's vault to power ever since. Peter Nicholas has been covering the Schwarzenegger administration for the L.A. Times during his inaugural year. Peter, welcome to On the Media.

PETER NICHOLAS: Thank you.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So, during the recall campaign, Schwarzenegger famously did an end run around the traditional news media and pitched himself through the Jay Leno Show and, and Oprah and talk radio. Conventional wisdom is that print drives the broadcast media, but in this case, it was the opposite, wasn't it.

PETER NICHOLAS: I think the governor realized that his celebrity is on such a level, and he has such international appeal, that he can go around the traditional print mainstream news media. I don't think access is what it was under previous administrations in California, and I don't think access is necessarily what it should be. But I do think that there is a recognition that the mainstream news media does count for something. I mean yesterday, I wandered into The Horseshoe, which is the governor's suite of offices, to talk to an aide, and Schwarzenegger happened to walk through. When he saw me, he came running over to me. We shook hands. He said "Are you here to interview me?" I said "No, but I have some questions for you while I have you." And he said "Sure."

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Peter, do you have a special relationship with this guy, because we went through a heap of complaints from news organizations writing their own story about Schwarzenegger's use of the media. They all seemed to suggest that this media machine that Schwarzenegger has constructed is much closer to that that is around a national candidate or a president, rather than a governor.

PETER NICHOLAS: I, I do agree that it is more like covering a presidential administration. You have to be more creative in terms of getting access. I don't think that you're spoon-fed interviews with the governor. There aren't instances where you can call him up. Events, I think, are unnecessarily and excessively pooled.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: That means that one reporter stands in for a flock of news outlets, and generally pool reporters don't ask questions -- they merely observe.

PETER NICHOLAS: Yeah. So, I think that the news media has to be somewhat more innovative. I think you have to go through intermediaries, friends of the governor. I think there's a sense among his staff that he is a brand, and as a brand, he should not be over-exposed. And in that way, they can create the best possible pictures of him, which is, I think, an important priority for this administration.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: You've been in Sacramento for a year. Do you think that the political press corps has fallen prey to celebrity rapture?

PETER NICHOLAS: Well, I would say at the beginning, the press corps was not sure what it had on its hands. Here was this charismatic, magnetic celebrity who swept into town, smoking cigars and setting up a smoking tent in his courtyard and charming legislators. It seemed that some of the gridlock in Sacramento seemed to be lifting. I think that some of that has faded, particularly with the passage of the budget. I think what the press corps saw in the budget process was compromise and concessions. And we saw the governor's promise of a hard spending cap on the legislature to rein in spending morphed into a much squishier Balanced Budget Amendment. And I think that there was a palpable shift in some of the reporting. Turned a little bit more skeptical, a little bit more critical, and wondering if the emperor indeed has clothes.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: So we've been talking for the last few minutes about how tough the Schwarzenegger administration has been on the media. But, paradoxically, it's also been wonderful for statehouse coverage. Statehouse bureaus are popping up now all over Sacramento or they're expanding, and that's the opposite trend from just about everywhere else in the country where local coverage has taken a definite dive. Is the lesson here that we need a world class movie star to get the press and the public to pay attention to what's going on in their own back yards?

PETER NICHOLAS: Well, I think it certainly helps. I think the Schwarzenegger administration has obviously stimulated a great deal of interest in state government coverage. Who would have ever thought, I mean, people would be interested in bill signings in Sacramento? I wonder, though, how long it will keep up. But I think you're right -- there is unquestionably an incredible appetite for all things Schwarzenegger to a point where -- I mean when the governor spits out a cough drop, somebody collects that and sells it on Ebay for thousands of dollars, in hopes of capturing some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's DNA. And that's just a new fact of life in Sacramento. Virtually everything this governor says and virtually everything he does makes international news.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Peter Nicholas, thank you very much.

PETER NICHOLAS: Thank you, Brooke.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Peter Nicholas is the statehouse reporter for the L.A. Times, and he's been covering the governor. [MUSIC]

BOB GARFIELD: Coming up, the argument for evangelicals in the newsroom, and real sports intrude on the metaphorical race for the presidency.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media, from NPR.

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